LONDON:
England captain Ben Stokes was Wednesday ruled out of the fifth and deciding Test against India with a shoulder injury.
The England and Wales Cricket Board said vice-captain Ollie Pope would now lead the side in the match at the Oval starting Thursday, with England 2-1 up in the five-Test series.
Stokes has struggled with various fitness issues during a series in which he has sent down 140 overs — the most he has bowled in any series.
He is the leading wicket-taker on either side with 17 scalps.
“I am obviously disappointed to not be able to finish the series,” an emotional Stokes told a pre-match press conference on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old, whose career has been blighted by hamstring trouble, added: “I have got a decent tear of one of the (shoulder) muscles I can’t pronounce, I don’t know how to say it, but we took as long as we could to make that decision around that.
“A bit of emotion goes into this kind of stuff when you find out what you have done — bowling was ruled out as soon as we got the scan results. “But you need that time chatting with the medical team, Baz (England coach Brendon McCullum), then just 20 minutes to myself out there in the morning just to really be clear around the decision that we made.”
England have made four changes after a gruelling drawn fourth Test at Old Trafford, with Jacob Bethell, Josh Tongue and the Surrey pair of Gus Atkinson and Jamie Overton all coming into the side.
Fast bowlers Jofra Archer and Brydon Carse have both been rested.
Spin-bowling all-rounder Bethell makes his first Test appearance of the year, effectively as a replacement for Stokes.
Liam Dawson’s return to Test cricket lasted just one match, with England going into the India finale without a specialist spinner.
Bumrah decision
Jasprit Bumrah’s back injury earlier this year prompted India to announce the fast bowler would only feature in three games during the current series.
The world’s top-ranked Test bowler made his third appearance on a docile pitch in Manchester and has little time to recover after bowling a gruelling 33 overs, during which he took two wickets.
But India coach Gautam Gambhir says all of his squad’s quicks are fit for the finale including Akash Deep, who took 10 wickets in Bumrah’s absence during India’s 336-run win in the second Test at Edgbaston before suffering a groin injury in the next match at Lord’s.
England must decide whether to risk express paceman Jofra Archer, who has bowled nearly 90 overs in two Tests after more than four years of injury-enforced exile.
The home team took just four wickets on a flat Old Trafford pitch during India’s battling second innings, with seamer Brydon Carse also worked hard.
Jamie Overton has been added to an England squad that already has extra pace options in Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson.
Gill eyes another record
Captaincy appears to be doing wonders for the career of previously inconsistent India batsman Shubman Gill.
The elegant 25-year-old scored his fourth century of an extraordinary debut series as skipper at Old Trafford.
He came in with the tourists in dire straits at 0-2 in their second innings, responding with a marathon 103 in 238 balls that laid the foundations for a great escape.
Gill has set a new record for the most runs scored by an India batsman in a series against England of 722, surpassing team-mate Yashasvi Jaiswal’s tally of 712 in 2023/24.
At the Oval he could eclipse Sunil Gavaskar’s all-time India series record of 774 runs, set in a four-match campaign against the West Indies in 1971.
One downside for Gill is that he will be without vice-captain and prolific runscorer Rishabh Pant, who sustained a foot fracture in Manchester.